Dohm Scores the ULTIMATE Sweep in Kentucky
While temperatures soared into the 90s in a heat wave that has engulfed much of the country, Zack Dohm remained hot and finished a weekend sweep at Richmond Raceway (KY) by winning Saturday’s ULTIMATE Mid-Ohio Valley/Heart of America Butch Shay Memorial.
Saturday night was a different story from Friday night’s 30-lap preliminary feature when he took the lead from Scott James coming to the white flag for his first-career ULTIMATE victory.
The Cross Lanes, West Virginia driver started on the front row and rode behind polesitter John Ownbey during the early stages of the 50-lap affair, taking the lead around Lap 15. He remained mostly unchallenged for the remainder of the race despite lapped traffic and a late-race restart.
“It went pretty good, the race track was awesome,” Dohm told Speed51.com. “I don’t know how racey it was back through the field but it was nice and smooth. I love this track, they really put on a good show every time we come down here and we don’t have to stay too long.”
Dohm went to victory lane in his first trip to Richmond Raceway in 2016 with what was the Southern Nationals Bonus Series (now Southern Nationals Fall Series), but had come up short in Super Late Model competition until Friday night. Since winning the Damn Yankees 50 with the FASTRAK Racing Series last September, he now has two wins and a third in touring Late Model Series competition.
“I’m just glad to finally get a win again,” he said. “The first time I ever came here was in 2016 and we won, and then run second or third every time we came back for about the last two years. I think we finally may have learned some stuff to help us for that big $20,000 in a couple weeks.”
With his win in the Butch Shay Memorial, he is now locked into next month’s Paul “Butterball” Woolridge Memorial paying $20,059 to win for the ULTIMATE MoV and HoA at Richmond. Though he would rather start on the front row like he did on Saturday night, the automatic starting spot is always good to fall back on.
“It’s pretty cool knowing that we’ve got a guaranteed spot because anything can happen,” he said. “Hopefully we don’t need it. I’d rather start from the front row, but it’s nice to fall back on.”
Defending Butch Shay Memorial winner Jared Hawkins finished second, while new track record holder Scott James, Justin Ratliff, and Victor Lee rounded out the top five.
Both ULTIMATE series’ will race together once again next weekend as Buckeye Dirt Weeks continue at Hilltop Speedway on Friday and Wayne County Speedway on Saturday.
Video highlights of Saturday’s race will be available soon on the Speed51 Network, the “Official Video Home of FASTRAK and ULTIMATE.”
-Story by: Koty Geyer, Speed51.com State Editor (IN & MI)
-Photo credit: Speed51.com
